House price index for September 2012

September's house price index has shown the first monthly decrease in average UK house prices for some time, though the annual growth since September 2011 is still positive.;

The Land Registry house price index for September was published this week.

The HPI figure currently stands at 261.0, based on repeat sales since January 1995 (representing an increase in the average value of individual properties sold at least twice since that period, with January 1995 taken as the base level of 100.0).

The average house price for England and Wales stands at £162,561; this represents a monthly change of –0.3%, and an annual change of 1.1%.

Other key observations include:

The highest average house price is in London (£363,802) and the lowest in the North East (£99,163).

The only regions which have shown a monthly price rise are Wales, the South West and the East, with Wales showing the greatest at 0.5%. Wales still shows an annual decrease of –1.2%, however, whereas the South West and East have increased by 0.9% and 1.9% respectively since this time last year.

The most significant annual price increase has occurred in London with a rise of 5.5%, compared with the largest drop in the North East of –3.2%. The monthly changes for these regions are –0.2% and –1.8% respectively.

As in previous indices, the regional figures tell a different story. According to the September index itself,

“Price index volatility is greater in areas where recorded sales volumes are low. Index volatility leads to erratic and high changes in reported price.”

The number of transactions recorded between April and July was 52,309; during the same period last year 54,935 transactions were recorded, representing a change of –4.78%.

This information should not be interpreted as financial advice. Mortgage and loan rates are subject to change.